On Monday, I hit the SEND button on my laptop, and my manuscript flew away. After three years and countless hours hunched over my desk, it was gone, winging its way to my agent and a fellow writer.

When I sat down to craft my first novel at 42, I never dreamed that eight years later, I would have completed my third. But I have. And I finished this one, tentatively titled THE FUNERAL DRESS, much as I did the first – sad that it was done.

I took this photograph in the Sequatchie Valley and referred to it often as I wrote this book.

Sure there are rewrites to do. But then I need to consider other’s perspectives, concerns, dislikes, likes, etc. And although there’s great good to come from that process, it will definitely be different for me and Emmalee, Nolan, Cynthia Faye, Leona, and the others from Cullen, Tennessee.

Family members have told me to take a break, rest for a while, do nothing. But I feel at a loss. My days are a little lonelier now, even though I have time to chat with friends and prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Fortunately, there is another story begging for my attention, but I know I need to linger in this moment just a while longer, even if it is a bit uncomfortable. I need to say a proper goodbye to this process, this journey, that carried me over a mountain and delivered me into a world that I love.

How exciting for your readers to have the book soon. After hearing you talk about your process I can understand the emotions you must feel when ending the book. I know that sometimes when I am reading a book I love,I hate for it to end and find myself lingering on each word. Bittersweet.

I found your first book quite by accident. The name just made me smile. I bought it and saved it for a time when I could find five minutes to myself.
Turns out that five minutes was the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado when we were forced to "stay put" for a week with all the roads closed and the fires closing in on us. I, not only watch smoke outside my window, but fell and broke my foot. So....I read...and laughed...and cried.
Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Hazel PEterson

After returning from Camp Sumatanga, a UMC camp near Gallant, AL, in 1971, I began receiving letters from a fellow camper named Susan Gregg. The correspondence lasted for a short time. I was 10 years old. Would love to know if this little girl is you. I look forward to reading your books.

I just wanted to tell you that this book means so much to me. you see my mom worked in a factory much like this all her life.I lived in a town much like cullen for most of my life and all the things you mentioned the sense of community, the wreath on the door, the funeral home are all things I remeber growing up in MS. I very seldom cry and this book made me cry remembering all the women I loved who lived this kind of life as I still do in some senses. Thanks you so much.

After the three long years that you spent crafting and perfecting The Funeral Dress, the moment that you finished, the second when your finger hit the SEND button, does not mark the end of your relationship with the beautiful characters within the novel that you created. These relationships are everlasting - that is, thanks to you. Their presence will live on forever - through the words that you wrote. And each time you pick up the book, touch it's cream colored pages and lay your eyes on the text, you can be reassured that they have not left you. Emmalee, her baby, Leona - they are right there with you. They will never leave your side, just as you never left theirs.
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You combined your beautiful passion for life, your profound writing ability, and your special love for the South in order to tell a story that not many of us are told - and for that you deserve a gold medal. You used your words to let voices be heard that would have otherwise remained in silence - and for that you are my inspiration.
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I can't wait to read your next book mom, I know it will be just as beautiful and wonderful as all the others.

If you have friends or family members who are also doing
business in the online arena, I'd say call them up and
ask if they have used ghostwriting services before. These functions
are sine, cosine, tangent, cosecant, secant, and cotangent.
It provides a lot of help on various subject matters such as essay, technical questions, and even researches.